History is rewritten on the central Foro Italico. Jannik Sinner from San Candido, 24 years old, undisputed number one in world tennis, triumphs at the BNL d’Italia internationals fifty years after Adriano Panatta. In the final he beat Casper Ruud with a score of 6-4 6-4 in an hour and three quarters of play. The Norwegian player, a clay specialist, capable of reaching the second position in the world ranking a few years ago and today number 25 in the world, can do nothing against Jannik’s excessive power. Ruud can still celebrate an unexpected final and certainly cannot regret having lost to a superior player. One-sided final, yet at the beginning Sinner starts with the handbrake on and suffers the break in the second game. It seems that Ruud is able to harness the Italian’s explosive game, but it is only a temporary impression. Already in the third game Sinner breaks the Norwegian’s serve and then is good at being patient and accepting the opponent’s return game.
The balance lasts until four all, then Sinner, also thanks to game variations, with two perfect short balls, breaks the Norwegian’s serve again and, in the next game, after 49 minutes wins the first set. In the second the world number one immediately takes control. Break in the first game and then off to the final success with Ruud forced to attempt unlikely shots to counter the fury of the Black Knight (due to the ‘total black’ outfit he wore in the tournament), or “red” Knight as they say in Rome. Casper, unlike the famous ghost in the film, does not disappear from the field and resists Jannik’s blows with Scandinavian pride and tenacity. He also wins a counter break point (on a sensational error with the Italian’s smash), but in the end it is Jannik who also closes the second set with a score of 6-4. Sinner thus triumphs in Rome in front of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, perhaps the only one more applauded than him on this historic day for Italian sport. The South Tyrolean champion thus becomes the only tennis player in history to win six consecutive Masters 1000 and 34 matches in a row in tournaments in this category. Furthermore, together with Novak Djokovic, he is the only one to achieve the Carrier Golden Masters, that is, to win all nine Masters 1000 tournaments. This is a day that Italian fans will remember forever. Before Sinner, in fact, there was also the triumph of the Italian pair Bolelli-Vavassori, the first by an Italian pair after 66 years.